The Daughter of Evil - Volume 3 - Chapter Ep1

Epilogue-To the Blue Country; Scene 2
Praeludium of Red, page 245-247

♣ Yukina ~On the HMS Victoricia, “Stern Deck"~

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The sailors were engaged in their work on the stern of the ship. Among them, there was a boy gazing at the sea, leaning heavily on the handrailing.

He wore blue breeches with suspenders. Of course, he was not in the navy, nor was he a sailor.

“Shaw~”

When I called to him, the boy turned around with an unabashedly sullen expression.

“…I’m really upset right now. Please don’t talk to me.”

“How cold! Is that how you greet your big sister who you haven’t seen in ages?”

“Think of my feelings, getting stuck with coming all the way out here to Lucifenia for you!”

His name was Shaw Freezis. He was none other than my little brother.

It seemed that my becoming a wanted person after the incident at the palace had reached my father’s ears, as expected. According to Shaw, my father had been in such a state at hearing about it that he could hardly look at him.

But my father was extremely busy, and unable to leave Marlon. Or rather, apparently he’d actually attempted to drop everything and come right over to Lucifenia, but he was stopped by my mother and his executive staff.

And so the one that he appointed as his messenger was Shaw, currently studying to be his heir. It also had the aim of broadening Shaw’s knowledge with this opportunity, him being such a homebody and all.

Of course, there was no way my father would let his precious eldest son go to another country all on his own. He had sent along with him eleven fellow travelers as attendants. It was extremely overprotective.

Thus, having made my reunion with my little brother after a year and a half, I was now being somewhat forcibly brought back to my home in Marlon. It couldn’t be helped, considering how tumultuous things had gotten, but I couldn’t help but be disappointed at having to accept my journey ending like this.

“Sigh~ And I’d been evading Papa’s pursuit so well up until now, too~”

“…You’re the only one who thinks that, sis.”

“Wha!? What does that mean?”

“Don’t take Dad’s information network lightly. After you ran away from home, he found out where you were immediately. He knew your whereabouts up until you were around Retasan at least.”

“It can’t be…Then…”

“Dad respected your wishes in his own way. Although naturally he was supporting you secretly. You had some idea of it yourself, didn’t you sis?”

“Not at all, I had thought that–that there wasn’t any…”

I did have some memory of that. The closest thing I could come up with was having met up again with Bruno by “accident” in Rucolebeni. Thinking on it now, he had still had his ties to my father after all.

“Well, you better prepare yourself for when we get home. …Not that I think you’ll be scolded, but I think he’s certainly going to cry first.”

“Ugh…Not looking forward to that.”

“You need to apologize properly to Mom too. She doesn’t show it as much as Dad, but I know she was worried about you this whole time too.”

“…Okay.”

When our conversation was over, Shaw ran off to the stairs that were on the main deck.

Levianta, Asmodean, Lucifenia, Beelzenia, and Elphegort.

At some point I wanted to tell Shaw about the various events I had encountered on my journey.

Because, while there were times when I was scared, that didn’t change the fact that all of them had been valuable and incredible experiences.